Kerby Joseph: I Want To Play All The Cold NFL Teams First

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The fact that he had to get carried off, he's the type of guy that when he gets right up, so he did it. The Rich Eisen Show. The number one pick goes to the Dallas Mavericks. Earlier on the show, Senior NBA writer for the ringer, Howard Beck. Coming up, Lions safety Kirby Joseph, co-owner of Rexham AFC, Rob McElhenney, Commander's Head Coach Dan Quinn. And now, it's Rich Eisen. That's right, Rob McElhenney, co-owner along with Ryan Reynolds of Rexham AFC and one of the stars of FX's Welcome to Rexham and FXX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He's going to stop by with two of his players, midfielder Elliot Lee and striker Steven Fletcher. Dan Quinn, the head coach of the Washington Commanders will join in hour number three, but joining us to kick off hour number two is the man who led the National Football League in interceptions in 2024.

He is a first team All-Pro for the Detroit Lions who just pizayed this man from Orlando, Florida. Ladies and gentlemen, Kirby Joseph. Good to see you, Kirby. How are you, sir? Man, appreciate you for having me here, Rich. I just want to say thank you, man, and all the word of God.

I appreciate you being here. So, before we start, I am an observant individual. I've got good peripheral vision. I'm sure you do as well.

I mean, you don't pick off nine passes in the National Football League in a single season and lead the league in interceptions without it. Did I see you rolling some putts on the Rich Eisen Show practice screen to our right in front of you? Did I see you rolling putts before sitting down in this chair? Did I see that? Yeah, you did. Did I see you miss a three-inch putt by about four feet?

Hold on, hold on. I was demonstrating. I was demonstrating. Demonstrating what? I was demonstrating what I'd be seeing on TV. Yeah.

Where do you see that on television? They right by the little whole thing and then they hit it and then they miss it. They miss it and then they snap the whole little... The putter? Yeah. Can they be mad?

They be missing. Me? I'm gonna make it. Wow.

I gotta admit, that is what he was describing. So you could make a three-inch putt. I can make that one.

Okay. I mean, he didn't make it, but I'm sure he could. So is that something... Do you play golf in your spare time or not really? Top golf. Top golf? Yeah, top golf. Okay, you do the top golf. Okay.

There's not much putting at top golf. Let's see how far I can hit it though. Okay. How far do you hit it? To the gate.

How far would the gate be? I don't know. It'd give me like a thousand points or something when I do that. You don't measure in yardage.

You measure it in top golf points. Okay. And then the little cart that I'd be driving by, I'd be trying to bet my dogs that I could hit it. I didn't hit it yet.

I'm trying though. I almost got close one time. Who do you go to top golf with? Any of your teammates? Just your family?

Yeah, my family, teammates, whoever. Okay. Who's the best top golfer on the Detroit Lions? I'm gonna say me. You?

Okay. Who else on the Detroit Lions goes to top golf? Do we know?

I don't know. I've only been with Broderick so far. He sucks. I'm enjoying this conversation.

Not gonna lie, Kirby. I'm really enjoying this conversation. Congrats on an amazing season. And so far in your career, you are the 97th overall pick of the 2022 draft out of Illinois by way of Orlando. How did you wind up at Illinois?

Champaign, Illinois? Man, honestly, I felt like it was a crazy story, man. It's warm in there when I talk about it, man. It's just that, man, I ended up getting an official visit invite from one of the coaches there.

I went there and I met like my brothers. I call for life, you know, my big brother. I call, well, I call him Bobo, but he's named Jamal. And then Bobby. Bobby passed a couple of years ago, so he's not here with us.

Sorry about that. Just me, me being up there with those guys, man, I felt like I had a sense of family. Like I sense family there and I'm like, I want to play football with these guys. Like me, the whole thing about me playing football, like I just, I just want to have fun and I just want to be with people like I care the most about, you know what I'm saying? Cause that's my teammates, you know?

So you fell in love with the spot right away. Yeah. Facts. You did.

Okay. And so what was your favorite part of being in the big 10? What was that about? What was that? I feel like the mentality that it gave me, you know, cause the big 10 is like, man, it's cold.

It's cold. You've spoken like somebody born in Orlando, Florida. Facts. Right. Good thing Ford fields inside, huh? Right.

I love it. I said, Detroit drive me. I said, okay, but they say the bills. I don't want no home games, man.

We go on the road. Dion Sanders, who I'm sure you've heard of from Fort Myers, Florida. He got drafted inside the, you know, the Georgia dome or is the places he likes to say the house that Dion sent that he built, right. He got drafted in Atlanta and he always said, notice, I never really played anywhere cold in my entire career where he gets, he got to choose San Francisco, Dallas, right.

He didn't finish up in, in Baltimore and Washington. So the mid Atlantic area got a little bit, you know, so, you know, but it's not like it, it, it, it hinders your ability to say, come up with a pick six in Lambeau field, right? I'm still going to pick. The cold ain't going to stop me.

I just don't like the cold. Walk me through this very moment that you're seeing on the screen right there. Hey, what up? Boom. This is what happened on this play right here.

What happened? So AG, man, without AG, he the head coach for the Jets and all, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Aaron Glenn? He called the blitz. So I was supposed to blitz. And I think BB got ejected after this game.

After, after this moment. So Brian Branch, you're talking about? Yeah. Yeah. So I don't, you know, I'm switching roles and I'm playing down safety and stuff. So he calls the blitz. Oh man, I'm late. I'm late on the blitz, man. I'm late on the blitz, man. I said, man, I don't care what's happening. I'm going to, I'm going to still keep going because you never know what's going to happen. And that's why you got to play every, every play full speed, a hundred percent.

Right. So then I blitz and then I'm, I'm late, man. I see it.

I'm late too. So I'm, I'm just running. I'm like, man, I don't care what happens.

I'm going to get there. I see pressure. I think Alex Anzalone comes, gives Jordan Love some pressure and I run into a lineman. Now I turn into a D lineman.

I'm quick. Got off the block. And then like, I just seen Jordan Love like rose up and I was like, he's not about to throw this. He's about to throw it too. I thought he threw it right to me.

You know what I'm saying? So he threw it and then I just caught it and I was running and I seen, I think I seen Levi, Levi with a block. I was like, that's easy.

That's an easy touchdown. And I'm looking around. I'm like, no flash. Like, this is lovely. Like, this is amazing.

Yeah. And your arms out right there. You just know you're about to hit the end zone.

You know what I mean? I don't quit to celebrate. After I get me a little pick, I quit to celebrate. And the way the Lions have taken care of business against the Green Bay Packers, certainly in Lambeau Field is something that began to happen. Your first, if I'm not mistaken, was your first game as a pro in Arrowhead against the Kansas City Chiefs? Not in my first game as a pro. My first game as a pro was at fourth field against the Seahawks. That was your first game as a professional football player.

Okay. And when, when you got drafted by the Lions, walk me through, where were you? Who got on the phone? What happened? It was Brad, Sheila and Dan got on the phone. They all talked to me. But man, I remember my draft night was just so crazy. Like, where were you? I was, I was Orlando.

I was in Airbnb in Kissimmee though, but it's like, it's still Orlando. I remember just being on the couch. Man, I got my mom beside me, my little cousins and nephews running around being bad, yelling and I keep telling them, get out the camera.

The news, the news is at the house. They recorded me and stuff like that. I remember just walking through, just watching the draft and watching it happen because I never knew where I knew I had an idea of where I was going to go. But like early on, they was telling me like, yeah, man, you can go from second round to like sixth round. You know what I'm saying? Like that's the whole draft.

You got to give me something, you know what I'm saying? But we narrowed it down to like, we'll say like the second round through fifth round, you know? So I'm like, I'm just, I really don't care where I get drafted, man. I'm just trying to get drafted, you know? Sure. So wherever I'm at, like I wouldn't mind. We knew the coach liked me.

We knew some other teams liked me, but I guess the coach ended up training up for my boy, Nick Cross. And I remember just saying a prayer on my phone. I remember looking at my phone. My phone was all black.

It's a black screen. I remember just saying a prayer for my phone. And like when I opened my eyes, I seen Detroit, Michigan, three, one, three.

I don't remember all the other numbers, but three, one, three, Detroit, Michigan. I was like, that's crazy. So you prayed for your phone to ring. You opened your eyes and the phone was buzzing ringing from the Detroit lines. Damn.

That's impressive. And so what did Dan Campbell say to you on the phone? Hey, Curvy. What's going on, man? Are you ready to be in Detroit line? I was like, yeah.

I was so overflowed with joy. So I was like, yeah, man, I'm just trying to get here, man. Hey, you already called my phone, man. Send me a flight.

I'm trying to come over there right now. You know what I'm saying? See what it's talking about. But other than that, man, it was just, the night was amazing. Like it was just amazing.

And it's crazy. You remember when I told you about my boy Bobby that passed? Yes.

I got drafted on the 97th pick and his number was 97. Oh, wow. Yeah. And he had this whole thing called 97 strong where, because he, before he passed, he was paralyzed from the waist down.

So he was doing stuff with the kids in the hospital and just motivating people that like, you know what I'm saying? Like, just because this happened, like doesn't mean your life's over. Meant to be. Yeah. That you're 97th overall, right? Maybe he's the one who helped your phone ring.

Yeah. Bro, every game, man, every game I go to 97 yard line, man, and I just pray, man. I just pray, man. I just, and I'm not praying.

I'm not asking for nothing, man. I just pray to talk, you know? I feel like it's a time for me to really connect. Well, it also seems like you've connected to your current teammates too.

And it seems like a very tight knit team when the lines play one another and with each other, obviously. What's your favorite Dan Campbell story? Cough it up. What do you got for me? I got a story about me and him.

Kirby Joseph. Oh, it's real crazy. Nothing crazy. Nothing crazy. Nothing crazy. We out there in practice. Hear me out.

Hear me out. It's bright. It's so bright outside.

It's a sunny day. It's like what? Like 80 degrees outside. You know what I'm saying? Detroit looking good.

Detroit looking like Florida. I'm in my stretch lines. I'm stretching. Stretching. I don't know what kind of stretch.

We're doing hundreds or whatever. And out of nowhere, man, it just get dark. I say, where it get dark from? Like, man, I look up. I don't see the sun no more. I see Dan Campbell. He's like, what's up, man? Like, but man, you don't turn the whole area right here shade, straight shade.

Matter of fact, you can stay right there because like it feels good. That's how big he is. Yeah, nah, he's, yeah. And he's larger than life in terms of being a coach? I feel like he could hoop.

What do you mean? He could hoop. He could hoop. He could play basketball. Has he done it?

I don't know. I never seen him. But that's how big. Yeah, he can hoop though. He can hoop. But when he gives a speech before a game, after a game, like that's the sort of larger than life stuff or what? Man, his speech is giving me chills, bro.

Like it just be so like, I just be getting in the mood to like get ready to go. Like I feel like every time we talk, man, you could tell he's passionate about the game and passionate about us. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, man, I'm willing to do it all for you, coach.

And you know, Aaron Glenn's now the new head coach in New York for the Jets. You're making a face right now. What do you miss him already?

Is that what you're saying or what? What's that face about? I miss you, dog. I miss you, coach, man.

I miss you. How good can he be as a head coach, do you think? I feel like he's going to be great, man. The sky's the limit for him.

Why? Because, man, he he understands how to teach. I feel like a great thing about him is that he understands players and understands how to teach players.

You know, I feel like some coaches just have one way of teaching and not not able to relate and be versatile and teach other players and understanding where players are coming from. I remember like in practice, bro, I'll mess up. You gonna get on my case, you know what I'm saying? But he always, why did you do that?

And when I'm asking this, I'm not asking you to get on your case. I want to understand why did you do that so I could, you know, help you. That's what he always tell me. And that's how I, that's really how I ended up getting better and understanding what he was trying to teach me and understanding the play calls, understanding the defense, because, you know, it's his defense. So understanding what he wants me to do and what's my job and what's understanding what's everybody else's job and how it intertwines with me.

So he made you better. Yeah. No question. That's you.

Okay. And congratulations on your contract as well. I mean, what was that moment like? For you with a pen in your hand, putting your signature on that. What were you thinking of when you were putting your signature on that?

Full year, 80 plus million dollar deal, sir. What was that like for you? I was thinking, I hope I don't mess the signature up. I hope I don't botch this, man. But just, just being in the room, just honestly having the conversations about it, just like, you know, it took like a couple of months to get it done, but just having the conversations was just crazy.

Like, you know, I was just, I was just in so much awe. I didn't want to, you know what I'm saying? Like overstepped, but I did want to know what they were talking about with my agent. I let my agent handle all that stuff. And I love my agent.

He does a great job with it. But who are you thinking of? Who are you thinking of? Were you thinking of Bobby? Were you thinking of other people in your family?

Who would you call? All that stuff. Man, first thing I did before I even signed the papers was pray. That's the first thing I did was pray. I didn't think about nothing. I, I went, I had nobody else on my mind, but I just wanted to say thank you. That's pretty cool, Matt.

Congratulations on all of that. Before I let you go, the schedule comes out on Wednesday. It's Tuesday, so we don't have the schedule. Put the, these, these are the opponents for the Detroit Lions. Who do you want first and where? All the co-teams.

We do them first. Cleveland. Get second game. Third game. Philly.

Get them out there. Green Bay. We could play them. We can play them in Green Bay first. And you know what I'm saying?

They could come forth field. Chicago, New York. Come on, Chicago.

We played them first. And you know what I'm saying? I mean, the only spots where it's not going to be cold for you is in Minnesota and here in LA.

Cause they're both indoors. And you know, I mean, you're going to play some cold weather games, Kirby. I mean, there's just no two ways around it for you, but Kansas city too. If y'all hearing me, y'all could make the commanders, the cold game. My boys play on there. We played Illinois together.

They know what sold me. Okay. That a cold game. Y'all want to make a cold game. Well, by the way, if you played with the Brown brothers, right? Oh yeah.

Sydney, Sydney, and Chase. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

In Cincinnati. Yeah. Yeah. Come on. Okay.

You're going to see them. How many wins are on the screen? How many wins? Well, the number of games are 17, 17, 17.

Is that what it is? 17. Okay. Is there, is there a QB you thinking that I want to pick him off more than any other, who are you going to get this year? Who's going to get got, who I'm gonna get. Yeah.

Put up the screen one more time. We're going to get all of them and there'll be a couple of multiple interception games. I got two, two pieces of game every, every year.

Okay. I mean, uh, uh, uh, two pieces in one game for every year I played. Yeah. You've had multiple interception games every year of your career.

The record is 14 in a single year. There we go. Kirby Joseph, you're going to set in 1952.

So it's been around for a while. Okay. You got it going Kirby Joseph, everybody, an inaugural visit here to the rich guys and show Tuesdays with Kirby.

He's going to pull up right down the street. Yeah. There's a card here in El Segundo that needs targeting. Come on.

I shouldn't say to a safety, we get called for targeting and have a problem. Good to see you. Thanks for being on the field and here at the rich guys and show, when we come back, we'll talk wreck, some football with Rock McElhinney and two members of a Rexham AFC. This message is brought to you by Navy federal credit union. May is military appreciation month, and we're celebrating the military community that goes above and beyond every day with Navy federal credit union. Navy federal was created for the military community and is dedicated to ensuring that its members feel celebrated and honored every single day for over 90 years, Navy federal's mission has been to support and uplift the military community.

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See store or sleepnumber.com for details. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show on the Roku Channel Radio. We'll join in just a couple minutes time. We've got three guests to introduce. We've got two members of Rexham AFC. We've got midfielder Elliott Lee, striker Stephen Fletcher, and a co-owner. None other than Rob McElhinney here on the Rich Eisen Show in support of AFEX's Welcome to Rexham, premiering this very Thursday 9 Eastern on AFEX.

Streaming the next day on Hulu right here on Roku. Good to see you gents. How are you? So great. Now are you aware of who Tom Brady is? Yes. Yes, we are very aware of Tom Brady. Well, did you need, did you need a primer on that or you really knew who Tom Brady was? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. We know who Tom Brady is. Yeah.

So we know all about him. Okay. And Stephen, is that the same for you as well? You definitely did?

Exactly the same. You knew who Tom Brady was? You can't not know who Tom Brady is. Okay. Well, I think he's sort of a global phenomenon. I think so. Yeah.

Well, I thought I'd give you an opportunity to act like he had no idea who he was. I know. I know. It's just a, yeah.

Again, he said they wound up, I don't want to ruin the ending, but it all happened already, but they did wind up coming in first place and we came in a very close second. Indeed. Yes.

Indeed. So I am here back on the radio side of things. Rob McElhenney, the actor and co-owner of Rexham AFC in support of FX's Welcome to Rexham, an awesome series that we've been enjoying for so many years now. Season four is premiering on Thursday 9 Eastern on FX. Streaming the next day on Hulu and from Rexham AFC.

Midfielder Elliot Lee and striker Steven Fletcher are all here in studio right now. It is great to see you guys. Congratulations.

Number one. Thank you. On everything going on right now. It's been wild.

Unprecedented. It truly is one of the greatest sports stories that is out there right now of you taking over this side, this franchise in 2020. Oh no, you cannot call it a franchise. Okay, sorry. It is not. It is a club, it is a side. Oh my God.

Yes, it is not a franchise. So I nailed it with side. Yes, you had it. And then you just kept talking. You just got to know when to stop.

You got to know when to stop. Damn it. Okay.

And we are talking about football, of course. And you can hear in my voice that I just came from the city of Las Vegas. Yes, indeed. Yes. Three years ago, we said to the lads, if you guys get promoted, we'll send you on a first class trip to Las Vegas.

Yes. We thought that was going to happen once. It then happened the second time. And then this year it happened for the very third time, third time, which is the first time in English football that has ever happened. So back to back to back that you have been promoted and back to back to back.

I imagine each time in Vegas gets promoted itself in terms of the bigness. I'll let the guys answer that. Yeah.

Can that be confirmed? Yeah. Well, 100%.

It's got, it's got better every year. Yeah. Well, we have the photographs out there. What are we looking at right here on the screen that looks like to be a luggage cart that normally would be for luggage? Yeah. Honestly, I don't know what I was doing there. What's happening here? What's happening? I don't know.

This is, this is post pool party, I believe. Okay. That's the guard that we're seeing right here. Oh, you can see the sun is still out. So that's not a great sign.

Okay. We're just changing. We're just changing.

To be fair, anyone who's ever been to Las Vegas has gotten changed in the lobby. Who is operating this luggage cart? That's our defender, Dan Skar. Oh, right there? Yes.

Dan would be known in American sports as a maniac. Was there no security? I believe they were the security. Yeah.

Trust me, if you've ever spent any time with Ali or Dan, you would be comfortable with them as security. And nobody at this establishment red carded anybody is what you're saying? Nobody got sent off? Nobody got sent off? No. Not that I'm aware of.

No, no, no one got sent off. Okay. So this is the way it rolls when Rexham rolls into Las Vegas, Nevada. Yes. I mean, look, we've, we have been marveling at what they've been able to accomplish over the last few seasons and we want to make sure they feel like the rock stars that they are. And do you feel that? Oh yeah. 100%. Yeah. How has life changed for you?

It's incredible. It's the, obviously I joined three years ago when we were in the, in the bottom league and it's a massive deal what we've done to when you were in the national league, the national league. Yeah.

So now to get to the championship and as you said, we just, we did it the first year and then the second year and then people wrote us off again last year and I think we were tipped to be 16th in the league and we went and created history. But how has your life changed? I mean, is it different? Oh, it's so different. Yeah.

Obviously you have to, you have to get used to the cameras around on a daily basis, which is something none of us are used to. And, and the profile of yourself has gone up because of the documentary, because of all the, um, the media attention around Rexham. Yeah. If you, if you've played soccer in England, it's um, you, by the way, you could say football. I can say football. You don't have to dumb it down for me just cause I screwed it up before.

I play football. There's just, there's not a club like it. Not at all. You concur, Steven? Yeah. Honestly, what the owners have done for us as a, as a club and as players has been like unbelievable. You can tell my voice is still in Vegas. Is that really what is happening right now?

I'm honestly drunk through osmosis right now. Steven played in the premier league and he also played, as you can tell, he is not from the United States. He's from Scotland.

He played for the Scottish national team as well. Well, again, I would just assume again, but this is the way I look at things in life. I would just assume you guys were football players, uh, just by the hair alone. Like you've got some serious football hair that's going on right now, but I'm also a follically challenged guy and I trust me.

Um, I do have a little bit better sense of things than just to go for the hair on this sort of thing. Um, but right now, Chris, is this the first, the closest you've ever been to a man bun of any sort of, any sort of situation right now? Yeah. Yeah.

It's Steven and Seth Rollins. It's the closest I'll ever get to a man bun. Yes. That's not a bad thing. I'll say though, this is well paid for just so you know that. Well, I've gone with the philosophy of just as my hair thins to just make it as high as possible. And so I posted a photo of on, on social media this past weekend and the first comment was, uh, you won the Wayne Newton lookalike contest. And I looked at the photo and they were right. And I thought, I said to Caitlin, why did you let me wear my hair this high? And she said, uh, whatever, whatever. How has, how has everything changed for you, man? I mean, like, cause again, you're, you're obviously I've got a lot going on, but this along with Ryan too is something that I imagine gets brought up to you every single time that you're meeting people or anything like that. Almost every day. Yeah.

It's um, well look, it's, I remember in the very beginning and we talked about this in season one. In fact, I went to the Eagles and I sat down with, with Jeffrey Lurie and I asked him his advice and he gave me a ton of really meaningful advice. But the most important thing he said was, you have to remember that this is an incredible privilege that very few people in the history of the world get to actually enjoy and you have to have fun. You have to enjoy it. The ups and the downs and there have been, there have been just as many tragedies as there have been triumphs on the pitch.

But the truth is we just have to love every moment of it and be respectful. How did you choose Rexham or did Rexham choose you? A little bit of both.

Yeah. I wanted to find a town first before we went looking for a club. And so the original conceit was, and I remember the moment that it happened, I was sitting with Caitlin and we were watching television and I just thought, I had an idea that if you could, I learned about relegation and promotion, which if Americans still don't know what that is, it means you can get kicked out of the league that you're in. So who finished last this year in the, was it the Titans, Tennessee Titans in the NFL? So ostensibly you'd finish last and you would get kicked out of the NFL and you would go into the league below that.

And then if you came in last place, then you would go to the league below that and below that and below that. And when I learned of that, I realized that you could have a team with incredible history that could be relegated down into oblivion. And so we wanted to find a town, most importantly, that fit with the ethos that I most understood, which was working class Philadelphia. And once we found that town and we found a few of them, but Rexham was the one that jumped out at us because the history of the club, they've been around since 1864. They've had great success, but they had fallen on hard times and we knew that if we could just shine the spotlight on them and invest in them and make the story about them, that people would resonate with that. Look at you guys here. What's the backstory behind this one?

I think I can guess it, but go for it. That is the, that's promotion last year from league two up into league one. So that was on the pitch straight after. Just celebrating another promotion.

Yeah. So what has it been like to have these two famous American owners come over and do what's happening right now? It's been incredible. I think if people don't realize, I know he's my boss, but there isn't any other owners like him and Ryan. The care they take with the players, they know our families, they've spent time with our families and it goes a long way. Me and Steve both play for clubs. You can get owners that care, but you can get owners that don't care at all when you don't even know who they are and they won't know who you are. But with Rob and Ryan, it goes above and beyond care. And that is why we have this amazing environment at Rexham and it filters down from the owners. Steven, you want to pop in there? It's just, it's a credit to themselves how they take time out of their day to ask you who your family and that are and your kids and they know all your kids and we get to go on the golf course with each other as well.

I'm still unbeaten on that as well, so. Is that right? I mean, he created the game of golf, right?

Yes. It was created in a town, probably the town he grew up in. I never, I've heard that before that it was interesting talking to a lot of players that say some of whom have never met the owners of the club and I just, I can't wrap my head around that. Now it's also a delicate dance and I wanted to make sure that as we got into this in the beginning, I reached out to all my friends who are professional athletes or ex-professional athletes and said, what was the relationship? Because I don't want to assume anything. I said, what was the relationship that you would want to have with your owners?

Should they keep a healthy distance or should they be a part of your lives? And I think, I mean, to a person, they said, we would love to have a relationship. Now you always have to be respectful of what that really means.

I never, ever walk into a locker room and try to dictate strategy or anything like that. It's more of a personal relationship. The manager is the one, Phil Parkinson, who's, who's done such an incredible time, incredible job building this club and then managing them. And we just sort of back out of that. So it's just a personal relationship.

It's amazing. Again, for, for those who were, as you were pointing out what relegation is or what promotion is, you may not know. You know, the seven win Colorado Rockies right now, here in the middle of May would be in danger of being a AAA franchise by the end of the year, if that's what happened in major league baseball and the world of college football. I think relegation is coming.

I think 100% this sort of stuff is happening. And you know, promotion, relegation, it just adds an extra sense. What would it mean to get the ultimate promotion one more time, Rob, like one more time and you are in the tip top, you are in the premier league. What would that happen?

What would that mean? So at the end of the season, it was, we were trying to figure out which game and so many different things had to happen mathematically for the equation to work out. But we got to the end of the season and I just, I flew out there and I said, guys, I'm with you to the end. I don't know when the last game is going to be. I don't know if we're going to get promoted automatically. I don't know if we're going to go through the playoffs.

I don't know if we're going to lose and it's going to happen next year or it's going to happen the year after that. I don't care about that and I really don't. What's most important to me is to be grateful for the moment that we have right in front of us. So, and I say this with all honesty, I don't, I don't care about, about the next promotion. I care about this game. Look at you. Now that is ownership right there. That's an ownership response right there. Are you saying I've had, I've had media training?

You've been around the block, Rob, but it, it, you know, but when I did say it the first time, you did sort of have a flash on your face. Like, you know, like this, you want to win, right? But you want to win. You want to dominate. Yeah, of course. But that's, and, but that's the fun of it all, right? So the 90 minutes on the pitch, I can pretend that, or I can actually feel that Tom Brady is a great adversary, but the truth is as soon as you get off the pitch and you can compartmentalize and recognize that these are human beings who are giving everything of themselves for the badge and the shirt that they wear and the talent that they play for. And how can you not respect that win or lose?

So there's a lot of like reading Marcus Aurelius on a daily basis that helps you with that as well. But ultimately from a business perspective, it is both exciting and terrifying to think the prospect of the Premier League. Well, and again, just the way you chronicle it, the word is chronicled. It's it's awesome. And back to back to back promotions, season four, Welcome to Wrexham premieres this Thursday, May 15th, 9 Eastern on FX, streaming the next day on Hulu. And there's also, by the way, season 17 of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia premiering Wednesday the 9th of July on FX, streaming the next day on Hulu as well. I mean, that's a big ass number 17 for a television show. That is even a lot of years. It is.

It's a lot of years. You know, I just want to quickly spend a sec, a hot second on that. Do you have a favorite Danny DeVito story to me please here? Well, there's the fun version of it and then there's the truth, the true version of it.

OK, so I'll give you the I'll give you the true. The fun version is when he got buck ass naked and decided he would just grease himself up like a pig and come through a couch. And when we asked him to do it, he said, yeah, I said, Danny, I want to show you a video.

And it was a it was a video of a giraffe being born. And I said, I want to recreate this. And before I even hit play, he goes, no, I'll do that. So that was that.

That is one of my favorite Danny moments before you go on and tell the other one. Yeah. What's the genesis of wanting Danny DeVito to grease himself up naked and imitate a giraffe being born? I don't know.

I had seen one of those nature videos and thought, well, that's something. How can we how can we take that and synthesize that through the lens of a situational comedy such as It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia? And so that's what we came up with in the writer's room. And Danny was down.

He was down. Yeah. And the other story that you have, the other story is season one. This is this is the true one.

Season one. So both of both of them happened. They're both true.

One is more profound for me personally. OK. And I remember saying to him, hey, if you come in, you can ad lib a little bit of something here, because, you know, before you do the lines and he said, well, what should I say? And so you'd say whatever you want.

He said, oh, you write it down and you tell me. So I was twenty five years old at the time. And I was really I was a waiter. I was waiting tables because this is season one.

I had not really I was technically the showrunner, but I didn't know what I was doing. And he said, no, no, I want you to tell me exactly what to say. And I said, Danny, you're a legend. You're I grew up watching you.

You're the funniest person I've ever met in person. I would never presume to tell you what to say. And he said, no, no, I I came onto this show because I want to know what the next generation of people are doing. And I respect you. And I want to understand a little bit more about the world that I live in right now.

And the only way that you can do that is by talking to young people. And like, I never forgot that for the rest of my life. And I now, 20 years later, I find myself in positions all the time where I have to walk into rooms and instead of assuming I know what it is, I have to ask. So, you know, when it becomes a sports ownership, it's the same thing. I go and I never tell the players anything.

Most of the time I ask them things and then we try to execute upon what they want. So putting it all together, Danny DeVito's moment with you has helped lead to three. He is the fusion of emotions of Rexham AFC in a row in a way.

That's fair. I would say, yeah, he's the perfect fusion of of Marcus Aurelius stoic philosophy and the birth of a giraffe as pushed through a buck ass naked middle aged man on basic cable television with a little Louis De Palma mixed in from back in the seventies. Always. Man, congratulations again. Season 17 of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia premieres Wednesday, the ninth of July on FXX streams the next day on Hulu. Welcome to Rexham. Season four premieres this Thursday, May 15th, 9 Eastern on FX streaming the next day on Hulu.

All of it is available right here on the Roku platform. And you announced on Monday night that there's some friendlies going down here with Rexham and not just anywhere, right? Yeah.

Yeah. So we've been fortunate enough to bring the club both to the east coast and the west coast of the U.S. But this year we're going to our third biggest market, Australia and and possibly New Zealand. But Australia, there's just it's a it's a massive football country and there's a lot of great interest in playing with Rexham. So that's what we're going to do. That's awesome.

And you can't wait to hit the luggage carts there, I bet. But this is what I'm so fascinated by, because yes, they are young men, but still they just played 44 games, probably 50 games if you include all the all the cup and tournaments through brutal weather. We then went to Vegas where they brutalized their bodies for four straight days with all sorts of fun accoutrements. And then they have off for like three weeks.

And then they go back to it where they have to go to Australia and play a bunch of friendlies and then go back to another 50 game season. It's wild. I don't know how they do it. How do you do it, Stephen? I've been doing it now for 22 years. This is my 22nd year, yeah. It doesn't get any easier. But the kind of these trips now, they make it. So you play these 50 games knowing that you're going to the outcome is so special, like back to back to back.

Unbelievable. What about you, man? Yeah, as Fletch just said, you do it for moments like we've done. The promotions, they're the greatest feeling I think that you can get in sports. You can get individual awards, you can do all that. But doing something special like we've done as with a great group of people together is when that final whistle goes and you've done promotion and all that hard work has paid off year after year after year like what we've done.

For me, there's no better feeling. Well, congrats on everything that's going on, man, with your club. Club? Your side.

Side? You can call it a team. OK, team.

Just don't call it a franchise. Never will I ever make that mistake again. Thanks for teaching me the proper way.

I learned a much more difficult way. It's great to see you. Thanks for coming on here. Thank you for having us. You bet. Everybody check out Welcome to Wrexham season four, premiering this coming Thursday, 9 Eastern on FX, streaming the next day on Hulu.

Rob McElhenney, Elliot Lee and Stephen Fletcher here from Wrexham. Even the safest drivers still encounter unsafe conditions, so it's important they do it in a safe vehicle. And Hyundai's offer available class executive advanced safety features to help keep you protected against the many challenges the road throws your way. Basically, in a Hyundai, you can drive as safely as possible and enjoy your journey in confidence and style. When you change lanes, signal check for traffic and enjoy the added safety of Hyundai's available blind spot view monitor. Constantly scan for dangers and take advantage of Hyundai's standard forward collision avoidance assist to help prevent accidents by alerting you of imminent collisions and automatically applying the brakes. Stay alert at all times and be thankful that Hyundai's standard driver attention warning system monitors your attention levels and can bring your focus back on the road. Safety is all about making the right decisions on the road and when selecting a vehicle. Learn more at HyundaiUSA.com.

Call 562-314-4603 for details. Let's talk O'Reilly Auto Parts, people. They're in the business of keeping your car on the road. Oh, oh, oh, O'Reilly Auto Parts offers friendly, helpful service and the parts knowledge you need for all your maintenance and repairs. They've got thousands of parts and accessories in stock, either in store or online, so you never have to worry if you're in a jam. The team at O'Reilly Auto Parts can also test your battery for free in or out of your car. If it needs to be replaced, they'll help you find just the right battery for your vehicle. Need your windshield wipers replaced or brake light fixed or a quick service? Well, they'll help you find the right part or point you to the nearest local repair shop for help.

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That's OReillyAuto.com slash Eisen. During the filming of Batman Returns, true or false, you remained in character as the Penguin between takes? Yes. Yes, I did. So did that freak anybody out? Yes, it did. Did you bring your children today? I did.

I definitely did not. Basically, once you get into the suit and you're in there for three hours doing it, the only time I broke was at lunch. And what we do, we had a little cart that would take me from the set, a little wagon, like a circus wagon, take me over to my trailer where I had a tent set up and the tables outside. And I had a friend of mine who was a really good cook, Vincent Schiavelli, who was in the movie.

He would cook some amazing meal. And then sometimes I had my flippers on and they were glued on so they'd have to feed me. And I used to use this thing, this wash, this mouthwash that I'd squirt in. So it's just like it's spirulina and mouthwash and something like that too. And I squirt it in before I go. And then the director would say action. And I go, oh, oh, oh. While you were in acting school in New York City, your roommate was Michael Douglas.

This is, this is half truth. Okay. Okay. I was already out of acting school. I had been doing off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway, summer stock, children's theater and stuff like that. We shared a place on 89th street. We were great.

I mean, you know, we decided right away who was the top and who was the bottom. Michael liked doing laundry. Okay. That's good.

He's, you know, folding. The best. Who did the cooking? Me. Okay.

Of course it was you. What's the best thing you cook? What's the best thing? I cook everything really, really good. My guy over there from New Jersey, Mike Del Tufo, cooks a mean baked ziti. Yeah. And you, you got one of those too?

I have a good, I have a good baked ziti. Okay. Well, all Italian guys from at least, you know, you, you, you, you're Italian guy, you had a mother.

Of course. So you're a mamone. Exactly. You know what a mamone is? A mamone is he hangs around his mother all the time.

And whenever she's in the kitchen, we became mamonis because first of all, we wanted to dunk. Yeah. Oh yeah. Right? Dunkin'.

You wanted to dunk. She's cooking. She's making the sauce. Oh yeah. And she's going to get out of here.

Get out of here. And you want a new walk over when she's not looking and you take the coulepon. You know what the coulepon is?

It's okay. It's it's a low Italian bread. The two ends are the ass of the bread. You take the end and you go over and you sneak over to the sauce. You dink it in. You know how you eat. Couple of wooden spoons got broken up in his hands.

She can come after you. One spoon. Hide the forks. Oh yeah. Man, you and Danny DeVito going back and forth about cooking and moms and whatever.

That's fun stuff, dude. My mother was like Serena Williams without the spoon. I can't do it. Please smash.

You could dunk and boom. Fantastic. Back on the Rich Eisen Show here everybody. Alright, let's give a second shot. Where about second chances here?

Of course. YL and Pittsburgh. YL, let's go.

Come on. You there YL? What's up guys? What happened the other, what happened last hour? What happened?

You know, I never waited ever an hour and a half to talk to somebody. You hear that? Okay.

You guys are very special. Okay. Alright. Very good. So what's going on?

There's two things I just wanted to address and maybe you can help me figure it out. What's pissing you off today, YL? What's pissing you off? Can you hear me okay?

Yeah, we can hear you. What's pissing you off today? What's up? Not pissing me off, man. I might get in a good mood.

I'm in a good mood. So, you know, the Steelers have never been known to be a team that, you know, is for distractions. Obviously, you know, Antonio Brown, now George Pickens, they got rid of them because of distractions for the team. But they're okay with Rodgers doing this for the last two months.

I'm just curious why they're okay with that. Quarterback. I don't know. Quarterback. Do you think he's going to win Super Bowl? Quarterback.

Plain and simple. Quarterback. A quarterback.

A future Hall of Fame quarterback that can catch lightning in a bottle and actually win one more and put one more ring and one more trophy in the case just in time to host a draft next year. That's one. That's it.

Yeah, okay. I guess he has a lot of faith in him. Maybe he's going to save his job this way.

Maybe. But the other one, too. So the receivers that they've let go. I heard somebody else talk about this, that all the receivers they've let go, they've always done bad. But the last four, that I can remember, the last four people, Antonio Brown won a Super Bowl. Juju Smith won two Super Bowls, right? Kansas City.

Platteville Burroughs won one with the Giants. Now you're going to have Pickens and the women with the Dallas. I mean, Dallas is stacked right now.

And I know my man over there is enjoying it. And then, you know, and then you have Pickens that won a Super Bowl with the Eagles. It's just funny how when they let them go, these players, they actually do well. And that's why I have to say... Well, here's the deal, Wael. How about this? How about this?

How about this? Again, I understand when you see somebody as young and talented as George Pickens, who has got one year left on his contract, why are you trading him away? Just use the one year and let him walk, if that's the case.

Use the one year. You just got to, again, trust what's going on there and how the team feels that it is better for him to not be there, which just speaks volumes about whatever the heck was going on there. And it'll be up to Pickens to go to Dallas.

And what's the Chidor Sanders phrase? Prove himself right, not the other ones wrong. And it's up to the Steelers to prove themselves right. My guy, Roman Wilson from Michigan, he's a winner of Team 144.

He didn't do anything last year because he was hurt. And everybody else there, Calvin Austin, Jalen Warren, these are guys that have been in the shadows of folks like Pickens in the case of Calvin Austin. And also with the Jalen Warren in the shadow of Najee Harris. It's now their time to shine. And thanks for the call, Wael. We're up against it.

That's it. That's what it is in Pittsburgh. And the reason why they're waiting for Aaron Rogers is because Mason Rudolph, they've been there and he done that. I'm sure he would say, listen, if Aaron Rogers stays in Malibu, I'll prove myself right for the umpteenth time for this franchise. But they're waiting on Aaron Rogers because he's Aaron Rogers. And if he catches lightning in a bottle, like his last few years in Green Bay as MVP, which the Jets were hoping to get and didn't for many obvious reasons. You know, the question is, is will he be able to do it? But the reason why they're waiting for him is because he he might and it's better than what they currently have. And maybe they catch the lightning in a bottle.

Dan Quinn coming up. Right. So that's why they're waiting for him. This is very all unstealers like it really is big time. It's unstealers like to say we're we're cool waiting for you to work through whatever you're working through, as long as we feel like you're coming. I mean, you know what? You know what? Steelers like is what Cam Hayward said on his pod that we made fun of him for because he said, I don't know why everyone was so up in arms of what I had to say, like I'm calling out Aaron Rogers.

You know, Cam, I said it to you on your own podcast. When you say we're the Pittsburgh Steelers, either you want to play for us or not, that sounds like you're telling somebody, you know, either you poop or get off the pot. And that sounds Steelers like we're the Pittsburgh Steelers. You want to play for us?

Make a decision ready. And you know, what's unstealers like, you know, what we're going to do is we're going to take yet another wide receiver that we draft superbly. And even though he's got one year left and he's incredibly affordable, we're going to send him out. And without the quarterback plan and fully in place. We're going to go trade for another wide receiver and pay him 30 million dollars a year.

That's unstealers like, but that's the situation that they were in. And I think it's tough for Steelers fans like YL to wrap their head around it. They're going to wait for Rogers. They have basically been told essentially from what I've been told it's going to happen. And what do they need him here for now? You know, show up and show up and not in the summer. And if he looks rusty his first couple of games, cause I imagine he's not going to play a single lick in preseason. Maybe, maybe they'll give him a series here or there just to knock some rust off.

And how do you build rapport with your receivers? I don't know. Then it'll be like, well, the Steelers, the Steelers waited too long for the guy. Stay tuned for overreaction Monday, the first couple of weeks. We will see them. We will see them in Dublin, Ireland. Will we see them in Dublin?

I don't know. The NFL, we will see them on NFL network in Dublin, Ireland, Ireland in week three. And by then all the rush should be knocked off and we'll see what happens. Yeah, true. Unless he doesn't come, unless the saints call him up and he's like, you know what?

That might be, I don't know why it would speak to him better. Playing inside happens. That's not like one last run around the NFL, one last orbit around the NFL with a chance to win a ring. That looks like Pittsburgh. And I think the Steelers know it. This man who came up just shy of the Superbowl coming up.

Former MLB All-Star Sean Casey, AKA the mayor, keeps hitting it out of the park. Take my 30 years of experience. Take the wisdom and knowledge I've learned from the failures.

When I got sent down my rookie year, all the injuries I had to overcome. Your mind is the most important tool you have in life. Be relentless. Keep charging.

It matters how you talk to yourself, how you look at the world that matters. We talk about that. I don't know. I'm fired up. Baseball's back and it's going to be incredible. I love it. The mayor's office with Sean Casey from Believe. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.